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Comment by abeppu | Hacker News Reader

> A federal grand jury in New York indicted Veliotis in 1983 on 17 counts of fraud and perjury, and he is being sought as a fugitive from this prosecution. He lives in Athens.

> Top Navy officials acknowledged after Veliotis fled that they had were worried that he might compromise national security, and a major internal investigation was conducted to determine how much information he might have. Its results have not been made public.

I wonder if anyone knows -- why was he able to hide out in Greece? Apparently the US had an extradition treaty in place with Greece since the 1930s. Especially if he was a security liability, you'd think the US would have greater than normal motivation to pursue extradition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradit...

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I don't know about Greece, but many countries do not extradite their own citizens to other countries, and include the provision that they can refuse extradition of their citizens in their treaties. France is one such country, hence Roman Polanski. Greece-Canada treaty has this provision too, so I suspect Greece is similar.

> The Requested State shall not be required to extradite its own nationals. Nationality shall be determined as at the time of the offence for which extradition is requested.

https://www.treaty-accord.gc.ca/text-texte.aspx?id=103324

This is only surprising because it’s the US. I mean if the US security apparatus says “national security” all of the allies are supposed to drop everything and send them on the first military plane back across the Atlantic.

Like that US woman who killed a kid in the UK would be extradited? I guess lucky her hubby was in Intel and the UK cops were bamboozled.

Polanski spent decades in Switzerland (small luxury ski resort Gstaad), not so much France.

I dont claim to know the details of his case, but setup above is generally not uncommon, swiss even have special residency permit for folks bringing millions+ into the country, no need for pesky jobs like us peasants.

Greece isn't as tidy when it comes to administration; I wouldn't be surprised if he lives in relative comfort in a house under someone else's name, and nobody official comes to check.

>Greece isn't as tidy when it comes to administration.

Bingo.

Winning by becoming invisible.

There is mention in one of the articles he received "limited immunity" for providing evidence, which could have helped him avoid a more aggressive effort to get him. Or maybe they just didn't think the spectacle that would have been his trial was in anyones best interest.

Or if you want to get more conspiratorial, he could have been hanging onto these as a negotiating tool:

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91-00561R0001000...

Must have concluded that he didn't know anything really compromising. Else he'd just get an extraordinary rendition.

I thought extraordinary rendition was

a) started later and aimed at "terrorists" (and it seems hard to argue that this guy is in that category)

b) used to take people to black sites in 3rd countries, not to face charges or detention in the US

... and because of its dubious status under international law, it seems like it would be not a good look as a response to corruption issues?

If Greece is anti-death penalty and there would be a chance of that, they would not extradite.

> A federal grand jury in New York indicted Veliotis in 1983 on 17 counts of fraud and perjury

Hold up, even the US doesn't do the death penalty for fraud and perjury right?

Correct. This isn’t a death penalty case.

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